With the Easter fair on Monday night, film event for Year 7 today, Sixth Form Culture Day and the highlight for many - ‘Sponge the Teacher’ on Fun Friday. Thank you to the many teachers that volunteered for this activity… I really admire their courage!

These events might seem secondary to the main purpose of life in a high school, with much of the focus being on learning and ultimately GCSE and A Level grades. What these experiences do add to pupils is very important. Feeling that you are part of a school that cares, and being in a place that you want to be in is really important for us as a school.

This year we have intentionally created as many opportunities to enhance the feeling of ‘belonging’ this school year. I believe that this is contributing to our strong attendance, as our students want to be in school for more than just their formal learning.

The idea of belonging is also brought into focus by this poem by Bhagavanya in Year 7. Congratulations to one of our budding authors for expressing her thoughts around ‘belonging’ with such clarity.

Year 10 in the world of work

Well done to our students in Year 10 who have had a fantastic week in a wide range of different work places, sampling the realities of working life. The industries have varied from ICT (a placement with Microsoft), to leisure, construction (including a site visit to our own school development, complete with safety hats, boots and hi-viz jackets), international law, hair and beauty, catering and digital design. I am sure our Year 10 students will enjoy their school holiday even more after a week in the workplace.

Sixth Form culture day

Yesterday was a fantastic day. Students in our Sixth Form attended school in a rich variety of national dress, bringing colour and style to the school day. After school we enjoyed extraordinary performances of dance and music, accompanied by delicious dishes of food. This certainly brought the day to a climax with a vibrant celebration of the diversity of our students and staff…certainly an evening to remember!

Newsletters for each year group

We have written a newsletter for each year group, and they can be found on our website here: https://www.greenshaw.co.uk/newsletters. As well as celebrating whole school activities there are articles by each Head of Year sharing the highlights of the spring term.

Support while school is closed

At Greenshaw we work closely with a variety of agencies including the London Borough of Sutton, volunteer groups and the NHS. Please be aware that our website has many signposts to support agencies in the section ‘Care & Support’ as needed.  You will also find in the Care & Support section 

Our Help for the Holiday leaflet here also provides lots of useful information including the HAF programme offering children on benefits-related free school meals access to exciting activities, enriching experiences and nutritious meals - at no cost!

Stars of the Term 

At the end of a term we celebrate the work and efforts of our very finest in each year group. So huge congratulations to the pupils listed below for being absolutely brilliant.

Year 7: Ben

Year 8: Layla D-J

Year 9: Shan

Year 10: TBC

Year 11: TBC

Year 12 and 13: Adwin and Jegaprivan

Returning… to Week 2

We welcome our students back on Week 2, so if you could please remind your child to pack the correct books for their Week 2 timetable lessons that would set them up for a great return to school.

I wish all pupils a well-deserved rest over the next two weeks. For our students in Years 11 and 13 there will necessarily be some time studying, preparing for the GCSE and A Level exams next term, but I hope that all pupils and families enjoy the break.